‘I really do want to put Long Island on the map for beauty.’

Tierra Hawkins, East Meadow

“In 2019, I took my very first lash class because I decided I wanted to have a beauty business. Not even a year after taking my class, I was ready to start my own journey being a lash tech, but my family and I lost our home due to COVID. Last year is when we finally got a good home that was equal to what we had where everybody’s comfortable. Now I feel like it’s a whole new beginning for me. I have more time to just work on myself and what I already wanted to start: my business @lukes.wave on Instagram.

“I finally started esthetician school mid-November. The biggest issue I hear is a lot of women go to beauty school because they live in a state that requires them to have a license to do anything. In school they mainly teach you about facials. Facials are growing on me, but that was never my goal. I started out wanting to do lashes, but I didn’t learn anything about lashes.

“So my goal now is to start my own school after esthetician school. It will be a mini trade school, so you can learn everything that you can do under your license. I want to fill that gap. They’ll learn everything that I provide: brows, lashes, teeth and hair. We’re working on laser. But aside from my own services, I would like to invite other entrepreneurs over to my school, make classes and talk to my students so they’ll be more comfortable. I just want to make girls feel happy. The whole journey of going to school and deciding to start and educate yourself on a business should be happy. You don’t want your schooling to be miserable, because why would you want to come out and do your business?

So my goal now is to start my own school after esthetician school.

“I really do want to put Long Island on the map for beauty. A lot of women drive over an hour to get beauty services. I hear a lot of people go to Queens and Brooklyn, but I don’t think that we should have to use a half a tank of gas just to go get a service. That’s another gap that I want to fill: to let the girls who want services done that are from Long Island feel comfortable still staying on Long Island.”

Interviewed by Victoria Bell

‘I realized that I loved to help people through their fitness journeys, and this initially secondary career soon became my passion.’

East Meadow

“I was overweight as a child, and I got teased a lot. I was also a huge fan of professional wrestling, and I wanted to be a wrestler. When I told my classmates about my dream, they laughed at me and said I could never be a wrestler because I was fat. That day, I decided that I was going to prove them wrong.

“I got really interested in fitness. I started lifting weights in middle school and making better choices about the kinds of food I ate; portion control is very important when dieting. There are no quick fixes. Living a healthy lifestyle is all about self-control and making good choices. When I was in my 20s, I started researching the science behind improving my physique.

You only have one life, so go for your goals.

“By 2015, I was working for major professional independent wrestling companies under the pseudonym The Long Island Landmine. To support myself, I trained people at gyms, and I earned my personal trainer license in 2014. In 2016, everything changed when I tore my Achilles tendon. That injury forced me to think about the future. Even the best wrestlers typically start to slow down around age 40. I knew that I would need another career to support myself, and that’s when I turned my focus to personal training. I realized that I loved to help people through their fitness journeys, and this initially secondary career soon became my passion.

“When the pandemic hit, I started seeing clients one-on-one and also offering outdoors group sessions. I turned my garage into a fully functioning gym that can accommodate up to 12 people. It was never in my plans to start my own business, but I ended up establishing Joe’s Result Zone LLC. Wrestling has come full circle for me. This year, I had appearances for All Elite Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance and World Wrestling Entertainment. I also started a secondary business called Championship Entertainment Theatre, which arranges weekly live wrestling events at a theater in Mattituck. I plan to continue following my dreams because so many people told me that I couldn’t. You only have one life, so go for your goals.”

‘I know I can’t change the world doing this, but if everyone does their small part, it makes figuring it out easier.’

East Meadow

“I always loved the idea of the fading art on clothing, like the paint cracking after 20 years of it being washed. I remember seeing Justin Bieber wearing this shirt, and it was all bleached and had this oversized look to it. I would see some people wearing pieces that were ripped up or sewn together. I wanted to experiment like that. I wanted to customize my own clothing.

“Finally, I was like, ‘All right, I’m going to go to the thrift store, and I’m going to find something and bring it back home and throw some bleach on it,’ but not randomly. I wanted to really figure out the kind of a design I wanted. And then people were like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so cool. I want one.’ My friend mentioned selling my pieces in Love and Honey [Boutique] in East Meadow. It snowballed from there.

I just love seeing my friends in the shirts. I know it means they’re supporting me, and it feels really good.

“My mom’s my bookkeeper. Both of my parents help me for pop-up shops. My dad’s handy, so he’s helped me a lot with the warehouse, too. My sister is in advertising, and my other sister’s a buyer for a fashion company, so I’ve been able to ask them things. My girlfriend and her sister are social media influencers, and they’ve always worn my clothing and modeled my stuff. They got a lot of their followers interested in my pieces, so it’s all really worked out, and I’m rolling with it!

“One of the biggest parts about the work that I love is that we’re trying to help the environment in our own small way. I know I can’t change the world doing this, but if everyone does their small part, it makes figuring it out easier. Our brand is based in recycling because all the items are already made. Might as well make use of them and give them a new life, you know?

“When I first started Korrupted Closet, my goal was to have an artist wear one of my pieces onstage. And in September of 2021, I had the great pleasure of meeting this TikTok star-turned-punk rock artist, Jxdn. He came to the Paramount in Huntington, and I was able to meet him before the show and gift him a bunch of clothes that I made for him. When he came out onstage wearing one of them, it was crazy. I think that’s the best moment I’ve had. I also just love seeing my friends in the shirts. I know it means they’re supporting me, and it feels really good.”

Interviewed by Maggie Melito

‘I was raised in a home filled with art and beautiful colored glass objects. Beauty was everywhere exalted.’

East Meadow

“I grew up in East Meadow, and I consider where I grew up as my spot in the world. I was raised in a home filled with art and beautiful colored glass objects. Beauty was everywhere exalted. My mother transformed spaces with her creations. Even the mermaids she’d sculpt on Jones Beach were spectacular.

“Always an artist and writer, my mother Betty preferred figurative work, versus my preference for abstract. She was a ‘humanist expressionist.’ I was blessed with two creative, erudite, accomplished parents as my role models. Mom took me to every museum and gallery exhibition and gave me an art history education.

“When I went to Vassar for my undergraduate degree, I took art history and studio art courses. Mom was always urging me to pursue art and would enter my work in art shows — without my knowledge — and then announce to me that I won an award or was accepted in a show, including at the Firehouse Gallery, where only adults were supposed to be accepted. We exhibited together in Greenwich Village at Le Figaro Café while she was also showing at a gallery in SoHo.

I am currently a member of Huntington’s B.J. Spoke Gallery and represented by the West Hempstead Sunflower Fine Art Galleries.

“I attended the Art Students League in NYC with her as a teenager, and she asked Marshall Glasier what he thought of my potential, and he said that there was no limit to what I could achieve.

“At the age of 80, Mom’s health began to decline. She suffered through a house fire, a major car accident, open heart surgery, major dental infection, rheumatoid arthritis and then a vascular neurological disease. I took charge of Mom’s care, and that included hiring a licensed and recommended art therapist to help her express herself. I took up painting again after 25 years.

“Four years later, I won two national awards and have since built up a reputation as an exciting and accomplished original fine abstract artist on Long Island, and nationally, even winning awards in international juried exhibitions.

“I am currently a member of Huntington’s B.J. Spoke Gallery and represented by the West Hempstead Sunflower Fine Art Galleries. I have been a copywriter and marketing communications director and briefly a high school teacher and adjunct professor, and now I am happiest as an artist … My mother was right!”

Interviewed by Meagan Meehan

‘Running bases, stealing, feeling like you’re playing baseball again.’

East Meadow

“I was always a baseball fan growing up. I got it from my dad, who took me to Yankees games since ’95. About eight years ago, I was at Bethpage [Old Bethpage Village Restoration], and I happened to see some guys playing old-timey baseball. I ended up speaking to one of the guys. He got me coming down, and then after the first or second time, I was hooked right away.

“We try and keep true to the game … What they would wear at the time and even the field we play on is authentic … It’s gorgeous. Everybody that plays there is like, ‘Oh, we love this field.’ It’s just a grass field, but that’s all they played on at that point in time.

You know, it’s like a childish thing, but it’s a great time. And the community is so wonderful and amazing.

“Anywhere they could play, they would. But here is different; you know, it’s inclusive. We just want everyone to have fun. If someone’s new, we always tell them, ‘Please, please come down. Never be scared.’ We’re always very welcoming.

“Everybody kind of just gets nicknames. None of them are just handed out. You know, the one guy, his nickname is Dirt, and one of his first times playing, he just fell and rolled around in the dirt. Another guy’s name is Crawler, because he tripped trying to get to the ball and he had to crawl.

“Every time we play the Brooklyn Atlantics – our quote-unquote rival, but they’re our friends really – after a game, no matter who wins, we hang out and we talk, you know? It’s nice to be able to play against your friends and still be friends after the game.

“Running bases, stealing, feeling like you’re playing baseball again – they call it ‘the child’s game,’ and you do feel like a little kid, just smiling, running around and chasing after a ball.

“You know, it’s like a childish thing, but it’s a great time. And the community is so wonderful and amazing.”

Interviewed by Maggie Melito

‘Being more observant helps me see how others my age can do what’s right.’

East Meadow

“I love learning about the government and the way our country works. I was taking a law class when I was in the ninth grade. My teacher knew the person running the Nassau County Peer Diversion Court. I waited a few months after applying, and then found out I was accepted to be a part of it! The program is run for kids under 18 at the actual Hempstead courts through the Nassau County Probation Court. We learned how to become advocates for the kids that come through the program because they know what they did is wrong and they’re trying to learn from their mistakes.

If teenagers are considering joining a program like this, I would tell them to just go for it.

“We don’t see any violent cases that have weapons; maybe somebody stole something little and they were caught, or they might have gotten in a small fight. We don’t prove guilt or innocence. After their trials, they get to come back, sit on the jury, listen to other people’s cases and help themselves learn from it. Sometimes they get 30 hours of community service, or they might have to write letters of apology. The punishments are really just ways for them to learn from their mistakes.

“The program is very exciting, and I have learned a lot from doing it. I love to help people, and it’s really beneficial to see these kids come out better people. They see how to do the right thing. I feel like I have personally become a better person because of being an advocate, too. Now I pay attention to more things around me. Being more observant helps me see how others my age can do what’s right.

“I go to East Meadow High School, but the advocates are from all over Nassau County. The respondents are also from all over Nassau County. Once you graduate from the program as an advocate, you can even come back to see cases, and you can learn more about how the system works. I’m not sure what I want to be when I grow up, but now I know I definitely want to be in the law field, maybe as a judge or an attorney. If teenagers are considering joining a program like this, I would tell them to just go for it. When I joined, I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it, but now, after doing it a number of months, I really love it.”

Interviewed by Iris Wiener